For much of the past century (and in centuries prior), people really didn’t get much of a say in matters of food safety. You went to a restaurant or the grocery store and picked up what was on the shelves. Even with the formation of the Food and Drug Administration and various rules about food safety, there were always oversights that could have a dangerous impact on public health but that the average citizen couldn’t do anything about.
That has changed, though, with the advent of social media. A report in the New York Times takes a look at how the dawn of the social world has served to give people a voice on matters that previously they would have had no control over. People are taking to social media in droves to voice their concerns about matters of food safety, sometimes putting pressure on companies that even the FDA hasn’t been able to touch.
The article lays out some of the ways that regular citizens have used this young form of media as a means to affect change. Some people have grown concerned, for instance, about food dyes used in candy, and while the FDA failed to act, a petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest served to drum up support and potentially cause some companies to rethink their usage of those dyes. And anyone who remembers the pink slime situation from months back can attest to the power of voices united toward a common cause that may have slipped through the cracks in years past.
You have power to change things that are dangerous or wrong in the world, and you should use the modern tools at your disposal to do that.